Weekend Update â€“ Sunday 15 April 2012

Labour Candidates

Jon Harvey revealed that his rival on the shortlist for the Labour nomination for Thames Valley Police and Crime Commissioner is Tim Starkey.

Sue Pearson has joined the ranks of the longlisted Labour hopefuls in Northumbria, and in Leicestershire, City Councillor Sarah Russell has been selected as the Labour candidate, without the need for a ballot of members.

Cllr Shaun Wright has told TopOfTheCops he is on the Labour Shortlist for South Yorkshire, and as that is not the end of the road, it suggests there are more people on that list – readers, please feel free to let us know who else has made it!

The Liverpool Echo’s David Bartlett has summed up the race to win the Labour nomination in Merseyside, where two former Ministers and the Chair of the Police Authority are battling it out. Like Highlander, there can be only one!

Conservative Candidates

On the Conservative side, former Navy Commodore Tony Hogg is considering standing in Devon & Cornwall, though the article is not quite right in saying he would be the only candidate from outside politics, as regular readers will be aware of another ex-military man there, Paul Biddle MBE.

In Bedfordshire, Richard Stay, now no longer running, had pleasure in backing the application of Central Beds Councillor Tom Nicols.

Brian Paddick, the Lib Dem Candidate has published his manifesto online, including his commitment to do the Police and Crime Commissioner bit himself, rather than giving it to a deputy.

Other news

Those of us who have bemoaned the decision by the Government not to distribute booklets with PCC candidates election addresses, can at least take comfort from the fact that election communications won’t be censored by the Council’s Chief Executive, as has happened in the Liverpool Mayoral election.

The Local Government Association has published what it calls ‘guidance’ on Police and Crime Panels. Please don’t mistake this for the statutory or even non-statutory guidance sometimes issued by Ministers. The LGA only thinks it runs the country.

Sussex PCC hopeful Paul Richards got all misty eyed this week talking about believing in Labour through the hard times. Does he just mean hard times as in “when the party asks you to support Ken”, or was he thinking of all the people the party has offended while operating their PCC selection procedure? His emphasis on Faith and Labour seemed this imply Labour is currently testing the faith of its supporters.

And finally…

Lancashire police were looking for witnesses to an armed robbery at Kenny Hives off licence in Skelmersdale, which from memory was a pretty regular feature of life back when I was a PC there. Sadly, some things haven’t changed.

The Police Federation have been distributing posters entitled ‘March in London’, which go on to say how the event is in May, in London. I don’t think that’s what my former colleagues would call “bobby-proof”.

And if you think that Michael Crick seems to have gone awfully quiet on the PCC front, perhaps it’s because he’s been stamp-collecting. No, it’s not a sudden conversion to philately, but as he explains “I’ve just bought 400 1st class + 600 2nd class stamps from Coniston post office. More to come. By far the best investment going right now.” As the Royal Mail is privately owned, is such a blatant attempt to beat price rises a form of tax avoidance?